


Summer Days With The World's Shittiest Employee

by titanjammies



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gen, POV First Person, i don't know why it's set in a shitty convenience store but it is, jean swears a lot, jean's name is misspelled for like half the fic, sorry if Eren is OOC I tried to keep him in character i really tried, that's on purpose please don't point it out i did that for a reason
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-12-08
Updated: 2013-12-08
Packaged: 2018-01-04 02:13:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1075335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/titanjammies/pseuds/titanjammies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eren hates the store and he hates Jean and he doesn't know why he keeps coming back every day. Really.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Summer Days With The World's Shittiest Employee

**Author's Note:**

> Eren's a loser, Jean's a BIG loser, and I'm the biggest loser of all.

It’s 100 degrees outside and I’m supposed to be in Armin’s car and being driven home right now. Except that I’m not. Armin got stuck in traffic on the way to pick me up from the dentist, and being in the waiting room was mind-numbing at best so I dragged my ass a few blocks and settled for waiting in the nearest store.

It’s a shitty, nondescript little drug store, the kind with fluorescent lighting and a cardboard rack of terrible romance novels up by the door. There’s some sort of tinny-sounding, monotonous elevator-type music playing faintly over the speakers. I don’t even know why I’m here except that it smells a little better than the dentist’s office and is a million times more comfortable than waiting outside for Armin.

The guy behind the register is a skinny, bored-looking kid with an undercut. He’s got earbuds in and is doodling some kind of winged crest on his wrist with a ballpoint pen. His royal blue employee polo is untucked and there’s a name tag pinned lazily to the shirt that reads “JOHN” in blocky capital letters. Something about this guy pisses me off.

I wander around the store a bit, not really paying attention to what aisles I’m in or what items I pick up and examine. I text Armin:  
 **Me** : hows the traffic  
 **Armin** : It looks like you’ll be waiting at least another ten minutes. Sorry. Stay where you are, okay?  
 **Me** : k

"Hey asshole, are you ever gonna buy something or are you just gonna stand around and study that toothpaste all day?"   
The cashier, John I guess, is yelling at me, which is uncalled for because I’m maybe seven feet away from the register and I could probably hear him if he was whispering.

"Would it kill you to lower your voice," I say.

_"_ Speak a little quieter why don’t you?" He shouts back, and I realize that he can’t hear me because his headphones are turned way up. I walk over and yank them out of his ears.

"HEY WHAT THE-"

"Better?"

He grumbles something that sounds remarkably like “fucking shithead” and then glares at me and tells me to FUCKING BUY SOMETHING. And I do. I grab a pack of gummy bears and throw it on the counter. He angrily rings it up and I angrily throw money at him, tell him to keep the damn change, and march myself out the door. By the time Armin arrives the gummy bears have started globbing together into a melty pool and I’m practically swimming in sweat.  
———-

A week later, I am driving myself places. Summer school started today. I’m not in summer school because I need better grades, I just needed to get in art credit and would rather get it out of the way now rather than later. Classes are in the morning and let out around noon, so right now I’m hungry. I don’t know why I do it, but I end up stopping at the little convenience store from last week. John glares at me when I walk in.

"You better not be planning on hanging around today."

I don’t say anything. I just hand him a can of Pringles, pay, and leave.  
————-

For some reason I come back the next day, too.

Today, there’s another person in the store: a tall, square-jawed freckly guy who can’t be much older than me. He smiles a lot. He’s talking to John, whose expression reminds me of a little kid with a crush. I don’t know what they’re talking about, but John keeps running his hands through his hair and I think he’s trying to look cool. He’s not succeeding.

"Anyway, I should probably go before Mina wonders where I am," the other boy is saying.

"Well you wouldn’t want to keep Mina waiting now, would you," John says sarcastically, "see ya, Marco."

Marco laughs, and I can kind of understand why John’s so awkward around him, “bye, John.”

I notice that Marco pronounces the name differently. A softer “j” sound, like its French or something. Jean.

I wonder aloud, “So is your name tag wrong or does that guy just say it weirdly?”

John- Jean- whatever looks down at the tag on his shirt, looks up at me, and then looks at the tag again.

"Just but your chips or whatever and leave."  
—————

It’s become a kind of routine: after class I go to the convenience store, buy myself some kind of junk food, and leave. A few times, I go and Jean isn’t there. Instead it’s a blonde girl with a hooked nose and an icy air of indifference. Her name is Annie, and she’s actually cool once you get to know her.

Usually, though, Jean’s the one working. I’ve gotten to know him a little better. He’s the same age as me and we apparently go to the same school, but I’ve never taken notice of him.

Sometimes Marco is there when I come in, which is nice because when he’s around Jean seems calmer and I don’t have to worry about having my throat ripped out. Marco is really just a good person in general, the kind of person you want to know and be friends with.

There’s also Connie and Sasha, who I knew before this all started. They’re Jean’s friends(I had no idea they knew him and I’m still struggling with the idea that that asshole even has friends) and they hang out at the store from time to time. Mostly they just eat and make fun of Jean. Occasionally he throws his name tag at one of them and looks a little disappointed when it’s handed back to him.

I don’t know why I keep coming back, but I do.  
————-

I guess we’re friends now, Jean and me. Actually, more like acquaintances who try to kill each other but we still actively seek out each other’s company and at some point we exchanged phone numbers.

After summer school ends I’m still going to show up at the store every day. I actually like this routine, and I don’t know what Jean would do if there was nobody there to mispronounce his name and piss him off all the time.

**Author's Note:**

> Since the only other thing i've posted here so far is that old crappy angst fic, i thought i'd do something more lighthearted. I'm not a big Eren/Jean shipper (I'm just not a big fan of shipping Eren romantically at all) but I love the idea of them being shitty friends who are in denial about being friends, and I really wanted to write that relationship. I might give this some more chapters eventually.
> 
> I've never written Eren's POV before so it's really just experimental also i wrote the majority of this fic in the Notes app on my ipod at three am so grammatical errors probably happened.
> 
> Abrupt ending and the fact that yet again, i wrote such a short fic aside, I actually like this a lot and i'm proud of it. Also this is one of the few times i've written something not set during winter.


End file.
